Misguided or downright daft, Allardyce is paying for Carroll gamble

It
was August 17 when West Ham United last won a league game at Upton
Park. No surprise there. Home is where a team makes the play and takes
the challenge to the opposition. It is hard to do that without a striker
— and West Ham haven’t had a front-line goalscorer in the team all
season.

Barcelona can pull that off. They have Lionel Messi and a host of other potent midfield players and wide men.

Pep
Guardiola, the former coach, made the false nine fashionable — although
the last Arsenal team to win the league in 2004 as good as used the
same ploy — and as football coaches are magpies by nature, plenty of his
contemporaries have followed. Contemporaries who, unfortunately, do not
have access to Messi to make the plan work.

Gamble: Andy Carroll was at Upton Park on Saturday but was watching from the stands once again

Sam Allardyce at West
Ham, for instance. He will claim bad luck has left him disadvantaged up
front, but a significant miscalculation has played a part, too. If he
thought he could last the season with Andy Carroll alone leading the
line, he was at best misguided and at worst downright daft.

More
harmfully, the rest of his summer signings seemed designed to
complement a powerful battering ram centre forward, not least the
acquisition of Stewart Downing. Except Carroll is prone to injury and,
so far, West Ham’s record signing has not kicked a ball this season.

Allardyce’s
Plan B, a 4-6-0 formation, worked brilliantly against Tottenham
Hotspur, but on that day the cat was out of the bag. West Ham’s
opponents know what they will face and make plans for it: no strikers at
all, or a limp front-line full of stop gap replacements such as Carlton
Cole, a player Allardyce rated so highly he allowed him to leave on a
free transfer in the summer.

Makeshift: With the absence of Carroll West Ham have struggled, with Kevin Nolan taking a more advanced role

No laughing matter: Sam Allardyce must be concerned about his team's slide down the table

Considering West Ham’s
economic need to remain a Premier League club before the move to the
Olympic Stadium takes place, this flirtation with the drop is a
potential disaster. Modern football sometimes gets too clever by half.

There
are many clubs and managers who treat their goalscorers as a machine
part like any other. Yet the striker’s job is to achieve, with
regularity, the point of the game. To go without courts disaster. One
might as well try cycling without the bike.

Football League pickpockets posing as protectors are killing dreams

The Football League would appear to view itself as something akin to Robin Hood’s merry men. They take from the rich and give to the poor. Punitive financial fair play damages applied to the likes of Blackburn Rovers and Queens Park Rangers will be handed on to charity.

So something isn’t right. For this wasn’t the original plan.

When the League first stole Michel Platini’s big economic brainwave, the idea was to donate the spoils of the wanton to those who had stayed within agreed limitations.

Double punishment: The Football League could look to penalise QPR after their relegation last season

Low expectations or just losing?

It was another triumph for English football last week.

To the uninitiated, it would appear the national team simply lost back-to-back games at home for the first time since 1977. Not a bit. They lowered expectations.

‘I think these results will bring people down from where they were after the wins against Poland and Montenegro,’ said captain Steven Gerrard.

‘There will be realism and perspective and it will be helpful. They’re not blowing you up, there’s not too much pressure and expectation on the players.’

Germany and Spain, too. So, at what point does lowering expectation become plain old losing football matches? Wait for the World Cup.

The reckless would be punished and the money from their fines split between those clubs who had played the game. Then the rules changed.

Maybe the Football League received counsel explaining the certainty of a legal challenge from a club with tens of millions at stake.

Maybe the scheme wasn’t going over as well as had been hoped. After all, a policy that effectively penalises an owner for investing his money would seem to run contrary to the ambitions of the fans.

Either way, what the League needed was an angle. And what better gimmick than making it all about charity? Who would speak up for transgressing owners then? Think of the children, you monsters.

Would you deny them this windfall, just for a trifling objection to being punished randomly, and twice?

Business people say football is an industry unlike any other. It certainly is. Lose a packet in insurance and the regulators tend to think you’ve suffered enough.

Only in football could a club be relegated at massive cost, only to discover the league below were now looking to apply a further fine after 12 months for contravening financial regulations that were not even applicable when the initial debts were incurred.

You too: Blackburn are likely to be in for similar treatment for contravening financial fair play regulations

Fairness? QPR brought in top talent like Loic Remy (left) in a bid to stay in the Premier League

Underachiever: Esteban Granero (left) didn't hit the heights he was expected to in the top flight

Blackburn and QPR could both end up paying exemplary damages for not meeting the Football League’s financial fair play rules. The liabilities that have made such a mess of their balance sheet, however, were incurred as a result of trying to compete in the Premier League, a richer and more fruitful environment. So this isn’t fairness. This is an assault on ambition and the dream of upward mobility.

For what is a club threatened with relegation to do now? Try to change the squad and gamble on making the improvements necessary to survive or meekly accept their fate and drop without a whimper?

At the wrong end of the Premier League clubs now run the risk of fines for carrying a deficit — in addition to the loss or revenue suffered with relegation. Blackburn and QPR could be punished simply for having a go a few years back. And this could happen to any Premier League team, even one that now resides smugly in mid-table.

Relegated clubs have a year in the Championship before financial fair play rules come into force, although tax applies even in the first year if they happen to win promotion.

A financial fair play analyst, Ed Thompson, calculated earlier this month that QPR could be fined as much as £48.7million if they went up this season. For what? Not playing by the rules of a league they didn’t expect to be in when they were spending money? What should QPR have done in the Premier League? Underinvested in case they got relegated? Conducted a fire sale last January to guarantee and prepare for relegation? How would that have played with their fans?

Blackburn is a poorly run club, yes, but not even owners as hapless as Venky’s deserve to be hit twice for the same mistakes. This isn’t fair play. This is little more than theft.

The Football League told a Sunday newspaper that political reasons were behind the charity decision. It’s a stunt, in other words. Give the money to charity and who can object? The League intend playing big-hearted Charlie with another football club’s money. The suits are up at the bar but the drinks are on Tony Fernandes.

So what should Crystal Palace do now? Or, for that matter, Sunderland, Fulham, West Ham United, Cardiff City, Stoke City or Norwich City.

Forget the winter transfer window? Raise the white flag of surrender? Accept fate. This seems to be the League’s message. Come and join us, in our mediocrity.

Misery: QPR were relegated after a dismal 2012/13 campaign in the Premier League

High flying: The west-London club sit in third in the Championship, joint top with Burnley and Leicester

Supporters of every club flirting with relegation hope for change in the new year. Not a spending spree to put the club in jeopardy, just a level of investment that might lift the team to safety. Yet, what if it doesn’t? What if, like QPR or Blackburn, the project fails? Then it would appear the Football League lies vindictively in wait, ready to punish any club unfortunate enough to fall into its grasp for the sin of hope.

David Moyes at Manchester United can open a whole bag of tricks to prise Leighton Baines from Everton, but heaven forbid if an inferior tries to preserve its place in the elite.

Survival, ambition — that’s not for the likes of Sunderland. They must be swallowed pointlessly, like the band on the Titanic. Only the rich get to use their resources. The rest just get punished: twice.Far from encouraging good practice, the Football League have introduced a system that rewards panicked sales, stagnation and surrender.

Think of Middlesbrough’s dreams as a promoted club and consider whether they would have been possible in the shadow of a £50m fine? What of Vincent Tan at Cardiff? Norwich bought three strikers last summer. If they are relegated will that attempt to improve be held against them, as if the loss of revenue in their fall is not punishment enough?

Splashing out: Vincent Tan (back) could find his Cardiff side punished if they are relegated this season

Affordable? Ricky van Wolfswinkel and Norwich are struggling so far this season in the Premier League

This is a savage and ridiculous policy, based on little more than envy. The Football League resents parachute payments and this could be interpreted as a small-minded way of getting their own back. It is a foolish strategy. Even if it stands up in court, the first major fine merely brings the day of the Premier League closed shop closer.

The likes of Newcastle United and Aston Villa will know they are a bad season away from having the League raid their coffers. They won’t stand for that. In time, if the League continues along this short-sighted path, the clubs above will vote for protection.

Vague talk of charity cannot make up for what is another assault on dreams. The rich can speculate, but the rest must know their place.

They have a motto at Tottenham Hotspur: to dare is to do.

Not any more. To dare is to get done over, by pickpockets disguised as football’s protectors.

AND WHILE WE'RE AT IT...

Leyton Orient goalkeeper Jamie Jones was punched three times in the face by a supporter of Swindon Town who invaded the pitch on Saturday. The club said they will ban him from the ground, Leyton Orient manager Russell Slade says he should be banned for life. Neither measure goes far enough. Five years. That should be the punishment for assaults of this nature. A sentence that acts as a deterrent. Football does all it can to protect the players: the law can do more.

Thuggish: One 'fan' rushed on to the pitch and punched Leyton Orient keeper Jamie Jones several times

Jay just blew his chance

There was some sympathy for Jay Rodriguez of Southampton after his unconvincing debut for England against Chile.

How could he be discarded after just one game, it was asked. The answer is straightforward: we no longer have the time for extended evaluation.

It seems months must first pass, but Roy Hodgson is now in reality little more than three matches away from his first World Cup group game.

Chance gone? Jay Rodriguez might have seen his World Cup chances diminish altogether

Players like Rodriguez or Adam Lallana have one chance to make an impression, or be discarded. Rodriguez’s international career may not be over, long-term, but we will not see him in an England shirt again before next season.

Lallana, by contrast, has played his way into contention.

The margins between success and failure at international level are tiny, the opportunities limited to as little as 45 minutes. Some see it as an inferior form of the game; on the contrary, it is the most exacting there is.

Sufficient? Rodriguez has so far notched up three Premier League goals this season with Southampton

Whatever was being said out in the middle on Sunday, whatever was said in Saturday night’s press conference, the ECB should not pursue Australian opener and incorrigible loudmouth David Warner or Australian captain Michael Clarke. It would just seem like sour grapes.

Warner was only responding to a question about Trott but he spoke the truth. The way he got out was pretty weak and pretty poor. To pretend otherwise would have been ridiculous, even if honesty wasn’t the tactful approach. Tactical, maybe. But we’ll have to be big boys and suck it up.

Let it lie: The ECB need not pursue Michael Clarke (centre) or David Warner for their conduct in Brisbane

As the Football Association’s scheme to claim Adnan Januzaj for England continued, Blackpool’s Tom Ince asked a question.

‘Januzaj is a fantastic talent,’ he said. ‘But there are a lot in the Under 21s that could run him close. ‘To bypass those players by bringing someone in — what would that say?’

Sadly, we already know what it would say. It would say the same thing UK Athletics said to every young athlete in the country on the day it chose Tiffany Porter as captain; it would say what British Wrestling said when it tried to pack the Great Britain Olympic team with East European ringers.

We don’t care about you, it would say. We care only for our bottom line. We will offer the illusion of support for young athletes, but our concern will be measured in soundbites and no more. If the FA end up making Januzaj English, that action alone will speak louder than their latest platitudes.

Rising star: Manchester United ace Adnan Januzaj (right) could be eligible to play for England in 2018